A Good Man Is Hard To Find Essay Examples

1073 words - 4 pages
Since the beginning of mankind there is been an unsolved issue of good verses evil. We see this controversial issue in everyday life, Such as Television, Newspaper, etc. " It is not difficult to label the agent of evil in Flannery O' Connor's signature story, "A Good Man is Hard To Find", says John, Desmond. The family is described as a typical modern family, which has all type of problems. Agreeing with each other is one of the biggest problems the family faces. The story starts of where Grandma is in disagreement with her son about where they should plane there next family trip to. After much discussion they decided on going to Florida. The story makes a twist when their car gets into an
VIEW DOCUMENT

1171 words - 5 pages
A brilliant storyteller during the mid-twentieth century, Flannery O'Connor wrote intriguing tales of morality, ethics and religion. A Southern writer, she wrote in the Southern Gothic style, cataloging thirty-two short stories; the most well known being “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
Mary Flannery O'Connor was born on March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia. Raised in her mother's family home in Milledgeville, Georgia, she was the only child of Regina Cline and Edward Francis O'Connor, Jr. Although little is known about Mrs. O'Connor's early childhood, in Melissa Simpson's biography on O'Connor, Simpson states that O'Connor attended St. Vincent's Grammar School in Savannah where she would
VIEW DOCUMENT

1363 words - 5 pages
A good man is hard to find, and there are good and bad people in everyday settings. Flannery O'Conner is the author of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" in which there are many instances where people disrupt lives of others by great amounts. O'Connor chooses a theme for every story that she holds on to throughout the book, but in the "Displaced Person" everything is twisted around and completely changed. "The Displaced Person" is the antithesis of the other works, because a good man is found, the intruder is a Christ-like figure, and the intruder dies in the end.One of the most obvious reasons "The Displaced Person" opposes her other stories is, because a good man is actually found. In her
VIEW DOCUMENT

1511 words - 6 pages
In the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O’Connor, the theme of the mysterious definition of a “good man” is apparent. The true definition of a ‘good man’ is flawed, but one must also realize that it is difficult to universalize simply because every person is entitled to their own opinion. O’Connor conveys this theme through her excellent use of diction, imagery, foreshadowing, and symbolism as well as through a creative use of repetition and an omniscient point of view.
The grandmother, the main character of the story, is manipulative, and in a sense, the definition of a ‘good man’ is referring to her belief of what characteristics a ‘good man’ possesses. From
VIEW DOCUMENT

653 words - 3 pages
A Good Man is Hard to FindIn Flannery O'Conner's "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the Misfit; a criminal; is about to shoot the grandmother. But before doing so, it was stated "She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." The grandmother had the potential to be a good woman. Only in her last moments as she kneeled before the face of death was she a righteous woman; only when a gun is pointed at her she is a good woman. So in order for her to be good, she must be at the verge of death.Throughout the story, the main character's name never came up; she was referred to as "the grandmother". She was a self-absorbed lady, a
VIEW DOCUMENT

1167 words - 5 pages
After the end of World War 2, the Red Scare took hold in the United States. A nationwide fear of a Communist takeover grabbed the American psyche. Americans acknowledged a sense of fear from intruders entering and changing the lives of individuals. A contemporary writer emerged who would later be considered one of Americas greatest fictional writers. Flannery O’ Connor’s use of an intruder in, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” characterized by a fall from pride, secured her position as one of the most influential writers of her time.
Flannery O’Connor was born on March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia to Regina Cline and Edward F. O’Connor. Born into a family of two of Georgia’s oldest Catholic
VIEW DOCUMENT

1190 words - 5 pages
A Good Man Is Hard to FindIn the short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the main character is the grandmother. Flannery O'Connor, the author, lets the reader find out who the grandmother is by her conversations and reactions to the other characters in the story. The grandmother is the most important character in the story because she has a main role in the stories principal action. This little old lady is the protagonist in this piece. We learn more about her from her direct conversation with the son, Bailey, her grandchildren, June Star and John Wesley, and the Misfit killer. Through these conversations, we know that she is a lady raised from a traditional background. In the story, her
VIEW DOCUMENT

554 words - 2 pages
A Good Man Is Hard To Find
The story "A Good Man is Hard To Find" begins with a family planning
to take a vacation to Florida. The grandmother who does not want to
take the vacation in Florida is persuading the family. She has read
about a crazed killer by the name of the Misfit, who is on the run,
heading for Florida. The mambas of her family ignore the grandmother.
On the day of the trip, ironically, the grandmother is dressed in her
Sunday best. She is decked in white gloves and navy blue dress with
matching hat. She is the first one in the car and ready to go.
O'Connor is getting the reader to visualize the Southern culture. The
grandmother's purpose of dressing this way is
VIEW DOCUMENT

708 words - 3 pages
Throughout most of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor, the grandmother is a discourteous character. She lies, insults, complains, and makes offensive remarks until the story is near over. Towards the end she goes through a dramatic change. The story begins with the grandmother complaining about going to Florida. She wanted to go to Tennessee and she made it clear to her son, Bailey, and his wife and children every chance she got: "'The children have been to Florida before . . . You ought to take them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad. They've never been to east Tennessee'" (Para 2). She is very stubborn. She would
VIEW DOCUMENT

1213 words - 5 pages
A Good Man is Hard to Find: Draft two
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is a short story written by Flannary O’Connor talking about a family vacation that has gone wrong. Family is an interesting topic when reading this story. The children, John Wesley and June Star, are spoiled children who have no respect to anyone. The father has a temper. The grandmother is a very judgmental person. Each family member plays a role of the outcome of the family trip.
The typical roles of children in stories about the “old days” are respective and considerate. The grandmother states after John insulted her native states that “In my time, children were more respectful of their native states and their parents
VIEW DOCUMENT

932 words - 4 pages
"A Good Man is Hard to Find": The Grandmother's Grace
Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" tells the metaphorical tale of a family's fatal confrontation with The Misfit, an escaped serial killer. The incidents and characters throughout the story are aspects of a plot intending to symbolize the spiritual grace passed from one human to another, without regard for kindness or evil. The prominent character in O'Connor's story is the grandmother, who embodies this grace. By including imperfections in the development of the grandmother's character, O'Connor shows the indiscriminatory property of grace she possesses.
&nbsp
VIEW DOCUMENT

822 words - 3 pages
Sarah SetleyDual EnrollmentPeriod 3February 6, 2011"A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O' ConnorWhile the concept of grace seems like the last theme in this story of murder and selfishness, it is actually represented quite frequently and as a big part of the story line. "A Good Man is hard to Find" focuses mainly on the personalities and traits of the two main characters, grandma and The Misfit. These two seem like complete opposites, which creates for a very intriguing comparison when it comes to their intelligence and capacity for grace in this short story. The Misfit displays a clear superiority in intelligence through his behavior and actions. The Misfit also has an obvious
VIEW DOCUMENT

587 words - 2 pages
Have you ever assumed that someone is a really nice person, but once you got to know the person you realized that you were wrong? In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the Wesley family and their grandmother are on their way to Florida. Along the way, the grandma was explaining to her son, Bailey that she did not want to go to Florida because there was an escaped convict, whom they called Misfit, on the loose. It had been suspected that he was headed there. Despite the grandmother's disapproval the family continued on their trip.A few days into the trip, the grandmother recalled an old plantation that she had visited when she was just a young lady. While talking about the plantation she
VIEW DOCUMENT

1012 words - 5 pages
The character of the grandmother from A Good Man is Hard to Find, was manipulative and self-centered. She also seem conflicted in that she clearly tries to portray herself as a “lady” and religious with high morals, but the actions of this character do not seem to support this. The character serves as an antagonist as her character causes a majority of the controversy for the story. She is motivated by the desire to get her way, often indirectly through the manipulation of others.
Her manipulation and selfishness is apparent in the beginning of the story, we find that she does not want to go to Florida as the family has planned. To try to change the minds of the parents, she attempts
VIEW DOCUMENT

2766 words - 11 pages
One of the most memorable lines from “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” comes from the Misfit when he says, “She would have been a good woman if it had been someone there to shoot her for every minute of her life (O’Connor 309).” Flannery O’Connor’s depiction of Christian faith can be seen in almost all of her works. Inevitably, the plots in all of O’Connor’s stories end with a shocking conclusion, and this leaves the reader with freedom to interpret the central idea. From the endless list of themes that O’Connor embeds into her stories, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is largely influenced by divine grace, hypocrisy, bitter reality, and white supremacy.
The feeling of white supremacy can be
VIEW DOCUMENT

1569 words - 6 pages
A Good Man Is Hard To Find
“Adversity defines the essence of who we are and who we desire to be!” This can be best realized in the rural southern regions of the United States during the late 19 forties and early fifties. Without a specific location of long-term concentration, this story finds three generations of a family taking a vacation (planning at least) to Florida despite objections from the grandmother. Factor in her impatient son (Bailey), his wife, and two smart-ass children have marginal respect for their grandmother resulting in a crew of authoritative, uncertainty, distant, and manipulative people about to engage on a trip that ends with certain
VIEW DOCUMENT

856 words - 3 pages
A Good Man is Hard to Find
I firmly believe that people reap what they sew. In the story, “ A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the grand mother is a prime example of this scenario. Her pathetic ploys and acts of deviance cause harm to the family throughout the story and it ends up coming back to her in the end. You can tell that harms is inevitable for the family by some of the clues that are found in the grandmother’s
behavior.
For example, in the opening paragraph of the story, she is complaining perversely
for the family to go on vacation in East Tennessee instead of Florida. The rest of the family wants to go to Florida but yet she is determined for them to do as she says
VIEW DOCUMENT

1640 words - 7 pages
A Good Man is hard to find
In the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O’Conner there is a major theme and life lesson behind this story. The author, Flannery O'Conner makes it very clear on what she is trying to portray. Each character has a deep meaning and has a great part of showing the irony and how everyone should look at the aspect of life based on events people face. This story also has to deal a lot with good and evil desecration of society over time. Throughout the story, there are two major characters, the misfit who is a murderer and the grandmother. There is also the family who consists of the father who is named Bailey, his two kids named John Wesley and June Star
VIEW DOCUMENT

1157 words - 5 pages
Misfit notices the change in The Grandmother, which is why he states that she would have been a better woman if someone was there to pull the trigger, her whole life. The Grandmother has never shown compassion about anyone, other than herself. There is also a deeper meaning to what he means; he tries to illustrate that people are not tested until they meet that point of no return.
May write about “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, “The Grandmother, who is portrayed as a self-centered, judgmental, self-righteous and hypocritical protestant, sees the humanity of the “Misfit” and calls him one of her “babies”.” (Dean 1260.) This shows you how the presence of god can affect those who believe in him
VIEW DOCUMENT

545 words - 2 pages
?Aging Without Grace? Imagine a Grandmother who doesn?t give a care in the world for anyone but herself. She has two spoiled grandchildren, a malignant son, and an idiotic cat she seems to care more about than any of them. She portrays herself as to be the perfect grandmother that anyone could wish for, but deep down is as selfish as can be. The grandmother in ?A Good Man is Hard to Find? fits this role perfectly and is a prime example for a person who believes in ?Pride before the fall?.The grandmother portrays herself as a faultless lady. She dresses very conservatively on any average road trip. She is over dressed, to say the least, by wearing white gloves, a lace trimmed collar and
VIEW DOCUMENT

777 words - 3 pages
The foreshadowing effect in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
To foreshadow is to give a hint or a suggestion of a forthcoming event. Flannery O’Connor uses the foreshadowing effect adequately in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” There were many hints and suggestions that something unpleasant was going to happen in this story. The moment the grandmother first speaks of the misfit, we can assume he will show up later in the story because he is headed in the same direction as the family. Close to the ending, when the gunshots are heard from the woods, we can assume that the situation cannot get much worse.
The first hint of trouble comes early in the story before the first paragraph ends. The
VIEW DOCUMENT

2579 words - 10 pages
Flannery O'Connor's short story collection A Good Man is Hard to Find has many elements of a southern gothic work. Images of ancient castles with sliding panels create suspicious themes and settings that lead the readers into the dark and gloomy world of the southern United States. With all of the violence, horror, and dismal surroundings presented in O'Connor's stories there is too a moral message given. Later gothic work did not always explain horror like this, holding little moral value to contrast their grotesque images (notes, November 1). O'Connor's stories do include a strong moral element, frequently in the form of religious explanations. The
VIEW DOCUMENT

935 words - 4 pages
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is a short story written by author Flannary O’Connor depicting the family vacation of a family in Georgia. The story focuses more on the grandmother as her thoughts are displayed to the reader, in contrast to the other characters whom the reader has no perception of their thoughts or feelings. Family is a big concept throughout the story as it plays a vital role in the progression of events. Family leads the family to their demise and the roles in which each character played throughout the short story.
To begin, an escaped convict is mentioned quite often as he has made himself infamous with the local media. The grandmother adorns herself with nice clothes and
VIEW DOCUMENT

1159 words - 5 pages
In" A Good Man is Hard to Find" there are a variety of themes. The themes in this short story are: the grace of the grandmother and The Misfit, the vague definition of a “good man”, and the class of the grandmother. All of these themes are apparent to any reader, but it does not quite seem to match O’Connor’s depth style way of writing. The two characters, the Grandmother and the Misfit change from beginning to end. Even though they are both different as night and day, they both have principles and stand by their principles no matter what the circumstance.
In the short story, “The Good Man Is Hard to Find” the grandmother describes a “good man” vaguely. The grandmother pertains the label
VIEW DOCUMENT

653 words - 3 pages
Foreshadowing In "a Good Man Is Hard To Find"Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" emphasizes narrative techniques tobring to life the story of a family from Georgia traveling on vacation to Florida. Her uses ofirony, foreshadowing, and omniscient point of view truly make "A Good Man is Hard to Find"an intriguing story. The part that might Interest one the most, is O'Connor's ability to create aseemingly omnipotent point of view making her a master of foreshadowing.Flannery O'Connor uses foreshadowing several times throughout the whole story. The foreshadowing in the story is a subliminal guide to what will happen next. "Her son, Bailey, didn't like to arrive at a motel with a
VIEW DOCUMENT

1116 words - 5 pages
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is the prime example of a southern family vacation gone wrong. The Character flaws of the grandmother, children, and Bailey when combined caused the family to crash from the highway and have a run in with the epitome of evil, The Misfit. After the entire family is done away with by The Misfit’s gang members, the grandmother is left to face reality alone. Her fragile and previously wandering mind is soon brought back to the realization that she is in fact the same as The Misfit. Flannery O’Connor was able to covey her defining of a good man through irony, religious undertones, and symbolism.
Irony can be found all throughout “A Good Man is
VIEW DOCUMENT

1446 words - 6 pages
A prolific writer, famously known as Flannery O’Connor in 1953, wrote the short narrative titled “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (Scott 2). However, it was published two years later in 1955, in her second collection of short stories. This particular collection presented the author as a key voice in the ancient American literature world until she met her sudden death in 1964 when she was only 39. The collection also won her tremendous fame, especially concerning her unmatchable creativity and mastery of short narratives (Seel 211). Interestingly, Flannery O’Connor considered all her works realistic and extremely cynical, despite the fact she also incorporated the use of fiction as a style in
VIEW DOCUMENT

1248 words - 5 pages
1 You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it.” This quote was stated in Flannery O’ Connors story of A Good Man is Hard to Find, she was a catholic all her life which motivated her to write stories and influence them. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, there were many examples of religion revealed in her literature such as the one presented and more examples followed. 2 The statement above is when The Misfit spoke this near the end of the story, just before sending the children’s mother, the baby, and June Star into the woods to be killed. 2 The Misfit tells
VIEW DOCUMENT

778 words - 3 pages
A Good Man Is Hard To Find The Storm
Of the two stories I read, one being The Storm by Kate Chopin and the other being A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor, I found that each had characters with moral dilemmas. In both, the setting played a role in these dilemmas but in different ways. In The Storm, the bad weather was the set-off to and unpredicted intimacy while in A Good Man Is Hard To Find, the setting seems to be focused around a family's vacation and their encounter with a criminal. In the following paragraphs, I will go on to explain how certain characters have moral dilemmas and how the setting helps to support my interpretations.
The Storm is based
VIEW DOCUMENT

1260 words - 6 pages
In the Flannery O'Connor story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the author introduces us the grandmother’s characteristics in the beginning. The grandmother thinks she is superior to everyone else because she is a “lady." She judges others and criticized Bailey wife because she believes the mother doesn't take the children somewhere abroad. She is dishonest, dissimulation, and selfish. The Misfit appears at the end of the story. He is showing that he doesn't care about anything or believes in Christ or religious matter. The grandmother tries to influence him that he can be a good person. The grandmother is a contributing factor that tries to show the Misfit that he can be a good man. The
VIEW DOCUMENT

667 words - 3 pages
In the beginning of "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" O'Connor describes the behavior of the Grandmother somewhat childlike. Personally, I hate her character in the beginning. She wants to get her way, and tries every possible ways to manipulate her son to satisfy her desire. I blame her selfish and lack of conscience when she blurts out "You're The Misfit! I recognized you at once!" (O'Connor 560) If she has just keep her mouth shut her family will not be in jeopardy, and they may escape the death. Once again, the Grandmother tries to manipulate The Misfit, so he will not kill her, but she fails. She starts out manipulating The Misfit, but at the end she seems to understand him, and wants to
VIEW DOCUMENT

2341 words - 9 pages
Religious Symbolism in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”
This paper will present a rhetorical context for the use of violence in the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” as she presented in her essay “The Element of Suspense.” The form of classical tragedy in this story will also be analyzed from the critical theories of Aristotle and Longinus. Tolstoy will be used to examine the use Christian symbolism. Nietzsche will provide a more well-rounded universal conclusion to the uses of tragedy and spiritual elements in this classic story.
Flannery O’Connor gave a talk about “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” in 1963 at Hollins College, Virginia, which was published as the essay, “The Element of
VIEW DOCUMENT

1537 words - 7 pages
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” it is time for a trip to Florida for a family vacation. About half way through their journey, Bailey, the father within the family, reluctantly falls for the convincing of his children, John Wesley and June Star, and takes them to see the old plantation home the grandmother had previously mentioned. He turns on to the dirt road the grandmother says the house is on and drives for quite some time; the grandmother realizes the house is actually in Tennessee and not in Georgia. It is at this point where the stowed away Pitty Sing escapes from the basket and latches to Bailey’s neck. Bailey wrecks the car and the children’s mother breaks her shoulder, but there
VIEW DOCUMENT

1209 words - 5 pages
Find”.
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” was written in 1953. The story demonstrates a broken family who can barely tolerate each other, going on a trip to Florida. Coincidentally, The Misfit has escaped from prison and is headed in the same direction as them. The grandmother continually attempts to persuade Bailey, her son, to go to destination that is not on their agenda. The only exception to their deviation of their route leads to The Misfit, who is a symbol of the grandmother’s salvation and the reality of everyone’s death. An individual’s misconstrued truth about their identity can falsify and taint their religion, therefore, leading them to beg for salvation. For example, in “A Good Man Is
VIEW DOCUMENT

635 words - 3 pages
Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is filled with foreshadowing which the first time reader will not grasp, but leaps out of the pages for repeated readers. When first read, the reader does not value the importance of the grandmother charter and her warning. She is thought to just be a rambling, nagging old lady. Even the grandmother does not realize the importance of what she is saying. The grandmother warns of the misfit in the first paragraph of the novel, "'Here this fellow calls himself the Misfit is loose from the federal pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people."' The first time reader simply sees this warning as the
VIEW DOCUMENT

1369 words - 5 pages
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find”
Flannery O’Connor’s “ A Good Man Is Hard To Find” depicts a family’s encounter with a criminal escaped from a federal penitentiary and their essential relinquishment of life. The family that the story surrounds has planned a trip to Florida for a family vacation. Knowing but unconcerned about the criminal at large, also known as the Misfit, the family voyages onward towards their destination until the trip is abruptly stopped by a totally unnecessary exploration down an unkempt, hilly and dangerous road. The dangerous road combined with the unsuspecting attack of the driver from the grand mothers cat, Pitty Sing, lands the family
VIEW DOCUMENT

666 words - 3 pages
A Good Man Is Hard to FindFlannery O'Connor's short story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," is about people losing faith. This story is about a family taking a trip from Georgia to Florida. While driving the family gets into an accident and runs into a serial killer named The Misfit. In this short story, The Misfit is the one that lacks the most faith. Its clear that through The Misfit talking to the grandmother the reader realizes that the Misfit has no faith."Jesus was the only one that ever raised the dead," the Misfit continued, "and he shouldn't have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If he did what he said, then it's nothing for you to do but thow away everything and follow him
VIEW DOCUMENT

1393 words - 6 pages
to Find” is a call-to-action for society because it conveys the importance of acceptance through its characters and resolution.
In addition to demonstrating the value of tolerance, the Grandmother is the first character who serves as a caveat for the public in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. Throughout the story, the Grandmother attempts to present herself as the archetypical “good”, spiritual old woman. Ironically, she is a particularly repugnant human being. She is set in her archaic mentalities, pretentious, and selfish. In the beginning, her egotism becomes evident when she rejects her family’s desires to go to Florida and insists on traveling to Tennessee, where she could, “visit some of
VIEW DOCUMENT

904 words - 4 pages
Important Aspects In "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" In "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," Flannery O'Connor hints that the story will involve coincidence. She tells us in the opening paragraph that the grandmother has second thoughts about traveling to Florida for a vacation because she has a bad feeling about a loose Misfit she had read about in a news article. This foreshadows the trouble to come, and coincidence advances the plot in the direction of this trouble. The grandmother's concerns about the trip foreshadow the events in the story. When the family decides to take a trip to Florida, the grandmother shows her worry about a Misfit heading their way. She believes
VIEW DOCUMENT

926 words - 4 pages
Foreshadowing in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"Flannery O' Connor, a native of Georgia was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century. As a strict Catholic, O' Connor often displayed a sense of spiritual corruption within the characters in most of her stories. One of O' Connor's famous stories, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," reveals the image of spiritual deficiency inherent in the characters which foreshadowed a bloody end.The grandmother communicated the warning of the Misfit, but her activities itself were various signs of foreshadowing of the end approaching. The grandmother warned about the Misfit in the first paragraph of the story: "'Here this fellow calls himself the
VIEW DOCUMENT

760 words - 4 pages
Grace in A Good Man is Hard to Find
In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” O’Conner, tries to make us understand the meaning of grace. The Misfit and the Grandma are the two main characters that show us what grace is and how it can be applied to a person’s everyday life. In Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Grandma tries to save her family by convincing them to visit a place she recommends to keep them away from the Misfit, whom with they later come in contact. Neither the Grandma nor the Misfit deserves grace but it is given to them anyway.
The Grandma tried to keep her family safe by trying to take a different direction other than Florida because of The
VIEW DOCUMENT

1538 words - 6 pages
Analysis of A Good Man is Hard to Find Salvation is a Choice In Flannery OConnors short story A Good Man is Hard to Find, the gruesome ending comes as quite a shock. However, upon a second reading, signs of an ominous end permeate the work. Hints of the familys tragic finale exist throughout the plot and are brought to fruition with the first murder of the grandmothers son, Bailey. The tale contains pervasive images of death which foreshadow the ultimate demise of the nameless family at the hands of the malicious Misfit and his two henchmen. OConnors writing is filled with meaning and symbolism, hidden in plain sight beneath a seamless
VIEW DOCUMENT

1087 words - 4 pages
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find", Flannery O'Conner immediately establishes her concern with goodness, or the lack thereof, in mankind by combining the aspects of symbolism, fate and religious redemption that ultimately ends with a bleak assessment about human nature with no genuine redeeming characters present in the story.O'Conner tells the tale of a family from the Southern United States in the 1950s whose vacation to Florida is abruptly ended when they run into a group of three malevolent characters led by an escaped convict named "the Misfit" after having a car accident. The story is told in the third person with the grandmother of the family as the protagonist. She is revealed as
VIEW DOCUMENT

1280 words - 5 pages
Flannery O'Connor was born in Georgia in 1925 during the Great Depression. She was an only child, brought up in a highly religious home, and grew up in the South. These aspects of her life become apparent when reading her short stories. O'Connor's most famed story; "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" follows an obscure family on their vacation to Florida. She uses life, as she knows it, to convey a world that she believes exists. "What she learned as a child remained with her and became the corner stone of her best work. Her sometimes worldly stories are always grounded in a certain religious innocence which can be traced directly to her early years" (UW Stout, 1). O'Connor's life can be traced
VIEW DOCUMENT

1542 words - 7 pages
When one first begins to read A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor, one is assailed by the humorous petty grievances of a mother living under her son’s roof disrespected by her grandchildren and lonely in a house filled with people, clutching at memories of days long passed similar to the Tennessee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie. As the story unfolds one begins to see the indifference of Bailey toward his family in general and especially his mother—rightly so, as the ‘old lady’ nagged her son and his family to the point of hilarity and rib-hurtin’ laughter had the cat stayed in the bag and the car did not leave the road. This interesting story of a mentally abused woman
VIEW DOCUMENT

2013 words - 8 pages
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” is another example of O’Connor’s way of writing stories. She has the reputation of being a Christian – belief writer. (Rath and Shaw) Her Catholic (Forkner, and Samway) religious values are expressed in her works whether it is exposed straight forward, forecasted or underlying it is there. In religious beliefs there is a representation of the Trinity; which means God represents three people in one: The Father (God), the son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. There are also three values in religious beliefs: faith, death and salvation. Faith is that you believe in the Lord and live your life to the good graces of his commandments. Second is death, which everyone faces
VIEW DOCUMENT

1234 words - 5 pages
Analysis of O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find
"The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind. Bailey was the son she lived with, her only boy. He was sitting on the edge of his chair at the table, bent over the orange sports section of the Journal. 'Now look here, Bailey,' she said, 'see here, read this,' and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head."
The story opens not with an image but with a sound ? that of the grandmother talking, incessantly and determinedly, as she does throughout the tale. Thus
VIEW DOCUMENT

1950 words - 8 pages
It is not difficult to feel some degree of sympathy for the grandmother at the start of Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find,’ but the reader quickly realizes this is not exactly the author’s intention. Throughout the story, the writer successfully manages through the tone, dialogue, and the character description that grandmother is the suitable one to get the title of Misfit. The third person narrative is closely focused on the grandmother’s point of view, which establishes her more strongly in the reader’s mind than other characters. Additionally, the fact that the elderly woman remains nameless; is ignored by her son and daughter in law and treated with a degree of contempt
VIEW DOCUMENT

908 words - 4 pages
The short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is a story written with the intention of converting the young people, of the time, into Christians. O’Connor is a strong believer, wanting to convince her readers to also start leading a Christian life. This is the theme of many of her stories. The grandmother being the physical body that feels the grace of god and the Misfit as the one who tests her faith, expresses this message to her readers effectively. The usage of foreshadowing, allusions, imagery and flashbacks by O’Connor builds up the reader’s anticipation for the final stage of the story and leads to the family’s fatal outcome.
O’Connor relies strongly on the use
VIEW DOCUMENT

1380 words - 6 pages
Running Head: Phase 1 IP 1Comparison of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find"SettingThe setting of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is in a place in Georgia, but the reader is not exposed to the description of the original setting. The story begins in a city that is not named where the family lives and takes the reader to many places where the family travels. There is "Plenty of local color - there are the old plantations that get passed, and Red Sammy's roadside barbeque joint." For "Love in L.A" the story takes place on the Freeway of Los Angeles, where Jake, protagonist, lazy, self-absorbed and irresponsible, is driving along the freeway (Dagoberto, 2004). The
VIEW DOCUMENT